


To Be a Hero

by orphan_account



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Flashpoint - Freeform, Gen, Non-Season 3 Compliant, Vibe fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8114983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Vibe’s powers have this habbit of coming in bursts. They don’t just come, they’re just suddenly there.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely happy with this one but I wanted to post it before the premiere and it gets botched by canon.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Vibe’s powers have this habbit of coming in bursts. They don’t just come, they’re just suddenly there.

(It started with the dreams, of course. One minute Cisco was having regular nightmares of his day-to-day life, the next he’s seeing an alternate timeline where he’s murdered by his mentor/father figure.)

The rest of it comes suddenly, as well. Cisco wakes up and bam! He can hear the entirety of Central City and feel the vibrations of the world, just under his skin. And he already knows even before testing that he already has perfect control over his sonic waves. A part of him knows something big happened. Something big enough to rip an entire universe apart and leave it shaken.

Something big enough, to say, give Cisco Ramon perfect control of powers to tap into the multidimensional energy. Powers he doesn’t even want and definitely didn’t have control over yesterday.

Cisco looks out his window, with more than a bit of apprehension, and sees that there’s the world out there, completely intact and just the same it looked before. Same noisy street and flower shop across the street. It’s as if nothing’s changed. As if everything’s perfectly normal.

It still feels like something’s wrong.

Okay, that’s not right. It feels like everything is right and on this side of just too suspiciously perfect.

Cisco opens his closet, intending to get changed and head to Star Labs and make sure the world hasn’t ended when he sees it. A costume, an honest-to-god superhero costume hanging in the back of his closet.

“Woah,” he says. “Freaky.”

He reaches out and damn, the suit’s his, isn’t it? Red and gold and black. He recognizes his own work and he definitely doesn’t know who else’s it could possibly be. It’s hanging in the back of his closet and he’s the only person he knows who’s small enough to actually fit the thing.

_Did someone sneak into his apartment and put a superhero costume in his closet?_

Before Cisco can actually figure out the weirdness that is this morning, he feels a disturbance in the force and barely manages to slam the closet door shut before he hears a knock on the door.

He opens the door to reveal Barry Allen in the Flash costume, breathing hard and looking a little frantic.

“Please don’t tell me the world’s ending again,” Cisco says. They just finished dealing with one world-ending event. He needs a little more coffee in his system before he can deal with another, which seems to be where this morning is headed. Cisco really misses the days when his only problems were how to make a particle accelerator that won’t explode in the middle of a city.

(Great big joke, that one.)

“No, the world’s not ending,” Barry says breathlessly. He’s searching Cisco’s face like he can’t believe he’s there which is starting to freak Cisco out a little. They just saw each other last night at Joe’s post-saving the world party.

“ _Hey! Who the hell is this?” A Cisco who’s not him sees eyes that shouldn’t be familiar but somehow is, searching his face for something they can’t find._

Cisco shakes himself out of the vision, finally understanding. Over the past few months, he’s gotten really good at keeping the vibes to himself.

It explains a lot. Of course, it doesn’t really explain how Barry managed to fix it in one night, but whatever. Cisco can deal with that later. The point is it explains a lot and Cisco has to deal with weeks of nightmares and a brand new timeline again. Great, just great.

Before he can say anything—ask about what happened or if the world really isn’t ending—Barry engulfs him in an embrace, shaking a little.

“You okay, Bar?” Cisco asks even though he knows Barry isn’t. He went through another timeline. Of course he’s not okay. Cisco should give him a little more credit.

“Yeah,” Barry says, pulling away. He clears his throat. “You wanna grab some breakfast? Jitters?”

Cisco smiles. It feels brittle. He feels the barely contained rage that the other Cisco had worn just under his skin. He doesn’t feel like him anymore. He doesn’t quite feel like that other Cisco, either. The realization of what happened is like that moment in movies where the hero gets a makeover and a brand new and better personality, only Cisco didn’t get a makeover and his personality’s probably gotten worse.

“Coffee and cronuts,” he says with a laugh. It sounds forced to his own ears, but Barry doesn’t seem to notice. “You know I’m there. Just give me a minute to get dressed.”

“Great,” Barry says brightly.

“And Bar?” Cisco says before heading towards his room.

“Yeah?” Barry asks.

“Maybe change out of the Flash costume first?”

Barry looks down as if he hadn’t even realized that he’s still wearing it. He disappears and is back a moment later, in a sweater vest and jeans.

Cisco resists the urge to sigh and heads to his room to get dressed and look like a functional member of society and not someone who gets waking nightmares every moment of his life. One of the downsides of having a speedster for a friend: It’s hard to get rid of them when you want to be alone.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

It’s not like with Reverb; Cisco was never Reverb, he’d only been a possibility. He was never evil, he could have been, but he wasn’t. That counted for something.

The other Cisco on the other hand… Cisco can literally remember being him; like Amy Pond remembering two separate childhoods, two separate lives, and two separate ways his life could have gone. One where he became a billionaire and where he’s… him. Sometimes he feels like two different people existing in one body. It doesn’t help that that other Cisco’s not so different from him.

He keeps having dreams of him (or was it nightmares?) A life not so different from his. One with high grades, speeding through school, making his first patent at twenty, making his first million at twenty-one. Basically a lifetime story. Honestly, at this point, he can probably write the guy’s biography and it’s practically his own. He gets what Harry said now. It’s weird seeing your life played out before you, especially if it’s not really your life.

The other Cisco… Well, to be honest, the other Cisco’s an asshole. He moves with an undercurrent of anger that Cisco’s all too familiar with. He feels like the same person but… more assholish. Someone who’s learned how to stop giving a fuck about what everyone thinks. They didn’t live that different lives, to be honest. The other Cisco was just a lot more assholish with everything he did. Which means he actually got people to listen to him.

He succeeded. He’s a billionaire. He’s in direct competition with every other research facility worth their name. He moonlighted as a superhero that everyone loved. He’s saved the world and actually got credit for it.

It wasn’t a bad life.

And worst of all, it feels like a victory, being an arrogant asshole. It feels good, not having to take shit from anyone anymore.

Cisco doesn’t know what he feels about that.

He’s been dreaming a lot about that other life. About Wally as the Flash and Ronnie alive and married to Caitlin. He once told Barry that he loved his life as it is, but he doesn’t think so, not anymore, anyway. Not when he knows what he could have been—what he _was,_ he doesn’t know which life he’d rather have.

He doesn’t know what he feels about that, either.

He’s taken to avoiding Barry. He still shows up at Star Labs. Still helps the Flash save Central City from day-to-day criminals, but not anything else. He mostly just sulks back into his apartment instead of going to karaoke night.

Barry changed an entire timeline and the lives of six billion people. Cisco needs a little time to adjust to that sort of thing.

He’s taken to staring at the costume in his closet and listening to the vibrations of the world around him. He wonders what made the other Cisco go out and actually use his powers to do good.

Okay, wrong question. Cisco already knows why the other him did it. What he wants to know is how he can do it, too.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

_The moment the other Cisco walks into the Cortex, he knows something’s wrong._

_He’s taken it as constant that there’s this uncomfortable thrumming under his skin on top of the vibrations of everything around him. It’s everywhere, ingrained into the atomic structure of everything in the universe. Cisco never really figured out why that is but it’s something he hasn’t even tried to question. It’s Planck level physics that he’s not even going to try and deal with. That’s just how the world works. He’s gotten used to it._

_Seeing a man he doesn’t know standing in the Cortex—a man without that uncomfortable thrumming. Everything about the way his body vibrates just feels right—instantly puts the other Cisco on edge. Whoever the man is, he doesn’t belong here._

“ _Hey! Who the hell is this?”_

_Iris and Wally look apologetic. And he’d been having such a good day, too. Knowing Iris would be by the Cortex always made his day a little brighter. The man is looking at the other Cisco like he knows him and at the same time doesn’t._

“ _This is Barry Allen,” Iris says. “He… Well, he followed us here. Barry, this is Cisco Ramon.”_

“ _What is he doing here? What do you think this place is? IKEA where people can just randomly walk in at any time?”_

_Iris gives him a look. Okay, so maybe he’d been acting more assholish than usual. He can’t really say that the man’s vibrations just feel right and that’s just plain weird; there are things that are really just too uncomfortable to say out loud._

“ _What do you want, then?” he says._

“ _Cisco, I—”_

“ _Uh, uh,” the other Cisco says. His hands are moving automatically, shoving carrots in a plastic cup for god knows what. “Don’t call me that. I don’t know you, string-bean.”_

_He can feel all eyes on him. He may be an asshole, but he’s not normally this much of an asshole._

“ _I need your help,” Barry Allen says with huge doe eyes, open and pleading. The other Cisco realizes he’s so, so fucked. That’s just the sort of eyes he can’t say no to._

 

 

 

 

\--

 

 

The first time he saves someone on his own, it’s entirely by accident.

He’s just walking home when he hears a man getting mugged. Now he says hears, but really it’s more like senses the thing from eight blocks away. It’s like a pulsing beat, underneath a thousand other pulsing beats of Central City, that a part of Cisco’s brain can somehow identify as danger. He’s running before he can even think how bad an idea it is.

He’s there a few minutes later. Cisco sees a guy, already on the ground, with a mugger looming over him, holding a wallet in one hand and a crowbar in another.

“Hey!”

Now, Cisco’s brain is still in whatever superhero type mode it’s in, so he doesn’t really know what makes him shout when he has absolutely no chance of pulling one over on a mugger. His hand comes up automatically and suddenly it’s there.

It’s the same when he faced off with the Black Siren only it’s a thousand times more than that; a beat, resonating within him, like a guitar string vibrating. Cisco does it consciously now, he pulls on the string as hard as he can, snapping it in two.

Sound explodes around him and waves of vibrations come out of his hand.

The mugger collapses to the ground.

Cisco and the guy stare at the unconscious body. Huh. Okay. That’s definitely new. Definitely not something he’d been expecting. Like, at all. Whatever. Cisco decides to deal with it later. There are much more important things to worry about. He shakes himself out of the thousand thoughts running through his brain. He helps the guy up, handing him back his wallet.

“Are you okay?” he asks. The guy nods, looking dazed. He can’t seem to take his eyes away from Cisco. Cisco only belatedly realizes that maybe he should have hidden his face. Whatever. He doubts he’s that memorable.

“You sure?” Cisco asks. The guy nods again.

“Don’t tell anybody about this, okay?” Cisco says. “Tell them you got away or something. Just not… y’know. Or just not talk about it. You’re not injured, are you?”

The guy shakes his head. His silence is starting to freak Cisco out a bit. He still hears the thousand other pulses of Central City and at least half of them mean nothing good. He needs to hear something other than that.

Cisco doesn’t think he can face down another bad guy for tonight, though. He’s not that other Cisco. He’s not a hero.

“Okay then.” Cisco pats him on the shoulder because it felt like the thing to do. Then he realizes that it seems more awkward than reassuring and withdraws his hand.

He runs away.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

_Barry Allen fits in well in their little band of superheroes. The other Cisco’s still not completely comfortable around him—there’s just something wrong about how right the vibrations of his body feel—but no one notices. He acts like an asshole around everybody, anyway. Especially the people he knows well. Nothing strange there._

_Barry Allen needs their help, though he’s not sure what for. Just that there’s something wrong. He’s been having dreams, he says. Dreams of another life where they’re all together and beating up bad guys._

_The other Cisco wants to laugh and tell him he dreams about that all the time. Dreams of Harrison Wells in a wheelchair only it’s not Harrison Wells but another speedster from another time and Barry Allen’s mortal enemy._

_(Really, if it weren’t for that part of his brain that’s just certain it’s real, the other Cisco would seriously be wondering if his food intake involved any hallucinogens.)_

_It’s nice, all things considered. Having Wally as their go-to hero effectively halved the crime rate of Central City. Having two speedsters? Criminals are too scared to get out of bed these days. Vibe doesn’t even need to make a lot of appearances anymore, just the regular Justice League of America PR shit, which is more of a relief than the other Cisco would like to admit._

_Then, Impulse arrives and Barry remembers._

“ _He’s not—I’ve never met him before but I know someone just like him,” Barry tells them._

“ _What do you know about him?” Iris asks._

“ _Not much,” Barry says. “But nothing good.”_

“ _That’s not really the question, is it?” the other Cisco says. “We already know that the dude’s not exactly Captain America. The question is: how do we beat him?”_

_Just as the other Cisco expects, no one really has an answer to that._

 

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

He does it again.

Not as often as Barry, obviously. Cisco doesn’t think he has the guts for that yet. But enough. Mostly at night. And still mostly by accident. He doesn’t, like, go around looking for bad guys, but it’s hard not find them when he has something way better than a police radio programmed into his brain.

He hasn’t told anyone about it yet, which, yeah he knows, totally stupid idea which will probably get him killed. But he thinks that whatever these powers are, they’re something he needs to come to terms with first. He’ll tell them. Eventually.

(It’s starting to feel like a well-worn argument that he’s long since stopped believing. And he didn’t even believe it that much to begin with.)

He almost doesn’t use the suit hanging in the back of his closet. It’s too much of a reminder from the other timeline, and Barry would no doubt recognize it if he sees it, but as always, practicality wins out. Cisco doesn’t have a support team as it is, he’s not about to say no to useful tech, as well.

Okay, so maybe it’s not as accidental as Cisco would like to tell himself. Like he said, it’s hard not to notice all the bad things happening when he has it on repeat twenty-four seven.

He tries to tell everyone he saves not to talk about it, but of course, they do. Cisco shouldn’t have expected anything differently.

News of Central City’s new superhero is still a rumor but it won’t be for long. He’s taken to wearing the hood of his costume up; his powers may have made it next to impossible to take pictures of him, but people do have this thing called memories and there are only so many long-haired Columbian superheroes in Central City.

Cisco’s trying to ignore the fact that, try as he might, he’s seriously getting into the superhero business.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

_They decide not to involve any other hero or hero team. The Justice League of America is of course, more than happy to help, but Cisco assures them that they have a handle on this. It’s not a world ending event and there are now three superheroes to defend Central City. That’s more than even odds, as far as everyone’s concerned._

_Their first plan is to exploit Vibe’s very convenient power of taking away a person’s connection to the speedforce._

_(It’s how he found out about Wally, actually. Needless to say that they got off to a very bad start.)_

_Cisco—Any Cisco with Vibe’s power—can find Impulse easily. Speedsters have this special vibration that only belongs to them. Something related to the speedforce. Impulse has the added feature of having a vibration that’s inherently different from everything else on this Earth; like Barry Allen, he’s definitely not from this universe. More than that, they’re something that shouldn’t even exist._

_They find Impulse—he and Barry together—and they fight him._

“ _You can’t defeat me, Flash,” Impulse says. The other Cisco doesn’t doubt that, given the chance, he would have gone off with his supervillain ranting for a few more hours. He seems like the type, with that weird headgear and the name. He’s definitely a faux villain._

“ _My line’s built to fight you,” Impulse says. “The Thawnes. I’m just one of them. Thaddeus and one day—”_

_He’s cut off by a sound blast to the chest. The other Cisco doesn’t even feel a little bit bad for cutting his rant short. Really, who says their real name out loud where your greatest enemies can hear it? The guy’s just an idiot._

“ _He’s not the one who’s going to beat you, Speedy,” he shouts. He doesn’t wait for Impulse’s attention to turn to him, just finds the thread connecting him to the speedforce and pulls._

_And pulls. And pulls. And pulls._

_The other Cisco’s heart climbs to his throat. He knows he’s failed even before Impulse laughs. He has the thread in his hands, but try as he might, he can’t snap it. The connection’s different than anything he’s ever encountered. It_ shouldn’t _exist._

“ _We need to go,” he says to Barry. “Like now.”_

_Barry doesn’t even ask. Just grabs Cisco by the collar and runs. Impulse doesn’t chase after them. From his rant, Cisco figures he likes a show and killing them in an abandoned field is not a show._

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

Cisco ends up telling Dante first.

“Let me get this straight,” Dante says when he finishes. “The powers you don’t even want get stronger and the first thing you do is stop muggers?”

Cisco rubs the back of his neck.

“When you put it like that it sounds like such a bad thing,” he says. He’d taken to fiddling with the costume, improving the tech, making sure the hood doesn’t keep falling off, things like that. It’s not as dangerous as Dante’s tone is making it sound. _It’s not._

Dante crosses his arms looking incredibly unimpressed.

“And if you get blown up?” he asks.

“How the hell would I get blown up?”

“Alright then,” Dante concedes. “Maybe not blown up. But you’re definitely going to get stabbed.”

Cisco snorts. And here he thought his brother would actually be supportive. Wait. That’s not right. He told Dante exactly because Cisco knows he won’t be supportive. He’s sort of hoping his brother would manage to talk him out of it. Doesn’t look like that’s happening, though.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dante,” he says.

“Why didn’t you at least tell the Flash?” Dante asks. “Or your other superhero friends?”

Cisco shakes his head. Telling them—telling Barry—would feel too much like an acknowledgement that that other world exists and that’s probably where he got his powers. Cisco’s definitely not doing that.

Besides, he’s still avoiding Barry. Like a lot.

“You need back-up,” Dante says.

“I probably do,” Cisco says with a sigh. There have been way too many close calls. He may have control over his powers, but that doesn’t mean he has any particular skill at the heroics thing.

“Tell your friends,” Dante says. “They can help.”

“I probably should,” Cisco says.

“You’re not going to, are you?”

Cisco shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “Not yet.”

Somehow, this leads to Dante running comms whenever Cisco goes out. He had told Cisco, quite adamantly, that he is not going out into the streets alone.

“I’m not going to let you do something stupid and get yourself killed,” he had said. Which was a bit offensive and weirdly sweet, which, come to think of it, is Dante’s M.O, anyway.

Which, fair. And besides, Cisco’s not arrogant enough to think that he can actually do this on his own. He’s not about to say no to that offer.

Besides, it might be a great bonding experience. The two of them are working on that.

Dante’s not bad on comms, actually. He has Cisco’s knack for research, and knowing just what would be needed. Add that to the required creativity needed to stop the most varied of villains and he’s almost perfectly qualified. And he has this way of guilt tripping Cisco to keep him from going into overtly dangerous situations.

“Cisco, I swear to god, if you die mom will hear about all of this,” he says.

“I’m not gonna die, Dante. I’m barely even leaning,” Cisco complains but leans away from the edge of the building, nonetheless. “And that’s just not fair.”

“What are you doing on the top of a building anyway?” Dante asks.

“Patrolling,” Cisco says. “It’s a good vantage point.”

“And what’ll you do when you see a bad guy? Jump of a hundred story building? You can’t fly, Cisco.”

“…Shut up, Dante,” Cisco says.

“How did you even survive before?”

Honestly speaking, Cisco doesn’t know either. He doesn’t think ‘winging it and hoping for the best’ is a good answer. He decides not to tell Dante that.

“Shut up, Dante,” he says again. Dante sighs over the comms.

Like he said, Cisco’s not particularly good at the heroics thing.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

“ _I don’t know why it didn’t work.” The other Cisco’s pacing the floor in agitation. He can either act like a dick or he can show just how guilty he is, and he definitely knows what he doesn’t want to do. “It should have worked.”_

“ _We’ll figure it out,” Iris says. “We still have time.”_

_Cisco opens his mouth to say that no, they definitely do not have time. There is an evil speedster going around Central City ripping people’s hearts for the fun of it, that is something that should be dealt with as soon as possible when Barry speaks up._

“ _Cisco, can I talk to you for a second?” he says. He nods towards the other Cisco’s office._

_The other Cisco doesn’t admit how glad he is to get away from all the disappointed eyes._

“ _What’s up, string-bean?” he asks when he closes the door behind them._

“ _I have a theory on why your powers didn’t work,” Barry says._

“ _Shoot,” the other Cisco says._

“ _I’ve been remembering the other timeline…” Barry hesitates, like he’s about to say something Cisco won’t like. It instantly puts the other Cisco more on edge. “I don’t think Impulse is supposed to exist.”_

“ _What do you mean?” the other Cisco asks._

“ _Look, he said he’s Thaddeus Thawne, right?” Barry says. “In my timeline, the Thawne line’s not supposed to exist. But since I changed the timeline, I think it screwed everything up and that’s why he’s here now.”_

“… _What?”_

_Barry picks up a marker and begins drawing a straight line on the board, looking frantic._

“ _I travelled back in time and created a whole new existence,” he says. “The Thawne line’s not supposed to exist, because where I come from they don’t and I couldn’t have gone back otherwise, but because of the changes in the timeline, it led to them existing again.”_

_The other Cisco closes his eyes and tries to stave off the growing headache. Why he even got into the superhero is a mystery. He should have been perfectly happy to be a billionare inventor. No, he had to go through this shitstorm, as well._

“ _That doesn’t make sense,” he says._

“ _He’s a time remnant,” Barry says. “He shouldn’t be here, but because of what happened, he is. He’s from a universe that never happened.”_

“ _So there’s a timeline out there where I’m not rich?” the other Cisco asks, fiddling with a ball in his hands. It seems like the easiest question to ask. “That’s a glitch in the universe. What does this have to do with my powers not working?”_

_The other Cisco doesn’t look up when he says that but a part of him could guess the look on Barry’s face. Surprise. The look of someone who’s expectations weren’t met. He’s used to that. The other Cisco may have been the richest man in America but that doesn’t mean he’s that different from Cisco. The only difference is he’s much better at hiding his insecurities._

“ _He’s not from any universe,” Barry says. “I think that however he’s connected to the speedforce, it exists outside of the multiverse, as well.”_

_It still doesn’t make any sense but it’s the only explanation the other Cisco has. He goes with it._

“ _Then what do we do?” he asks._

“ _I need your help to fix reset the timeline,” Barry says._

“ _Why do I have to?” the other Cisco asks. “You can already travel in time. That’s why we have this problem in the first place.”_

_Barry hesitates._

“ _I can’t,” he says. “Something’s stopping me from doing it.”_

_Probably the universe, the other Cisco thinks. From what Barry’s told him, the speedster has a knack for changing timelines which is definitely not a thing that should be happening. Maybe the universe has finally decides it’s had enough and is forcing Barry to stay put and think things through for once._

“ _What do you want me to do?” the other Cisco asks, still more interested in the ball than Barry Allen. Or at least pretending that he is. “Make you a time machine or something to go back and rest the timeline? I’m pretty sure that’s movie level science and not my area.”_

“ _You can reset the timeline on your own,” Barry says. “You can manipulate the vibrations of the universe. Theoretically, you can travel in time as well.”_

_The other Cisco sighs and looks up._

“ _And you’re really sure this is going to work?” he says._

_Barry hesitates again._

“ _Theoretically, yes.”_

_The other Cisco resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. The headache’s definitely here now, and in full force. He’s a mechanical engineer. He hates the word theoretical. There’s the things he can do and the things that are just on paper. Those are two completely different things. Sometimes they coincide, but sometimes, they don’t._

_Barry nods. He’s looking at the other Cisco with those sad doe eyes. Like it physically pains him to ask this of Cisco. Honestly, this man can probably convince a murderer to babysit a three year old girl and play Barbie dolls. It is really not fair._

“ _You don’t have to do this,” he says. “I understand if you don’t want to—”_

“ _How sure are you?” the other Cisco asks._

“ _Mostly sure,” Barry says. It’s not the answer the other Cisco wants but it’s the only answer Barry’s likely to give him._

“ _Then I’ll do it,” the other Cisco says, rubbing his forehead. It’s not like Barry actually gave him a choice or anything. “Just shut up and leave me alone for one goddamn night.”_

“ _Cisco—”_

“ _Go, string-bean. Go bother the rest of team Flash, or something. I need a drink.”_

_The other Cisco throws the ball across the room in frustration when he hears the distinct whoosh of Barry disappearing._

_One of these days, he should really learn how to say no to things that are more than likely to get him killed._

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

“Okay, spill, what’s been going on with you?”

Iris asks on one of their customary lunch dates. Something the two of them had needed to remind themselves that the world is real and their lives aren’t just constant crazy, comic book level of shenanigans. Lunch dates are good for that.

Cisco opens his mouth to say that, no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. But the look in Iris’ eye tells him that the lie will not be well received. He closes his mouth.

“We’ve been really worried about you,” Iris says. “Since Zoom you’ve been quiet. Withdrawn. We’ve barely seen you. Are you getting vibes again? Because you know you can tell us about that, right?”

Cisco almost lets out a hysterical laugh. He can’t believe that there was actually a time in his life where getting random vibes were his main fear. Now he has the knowledge that he can go evil, a brand new set of powers that don’t belong to him, and memories of a man that is but isn’t him.

And the vibes. The vibes just keep coming.

The thing is, Iris doesn’t sound like she’s accusing him or anything like that. She just sounds genuinely worried. Cisco never really held well under that type of niceness.

“Can I tell you a secret? Something you’ll swear never to repeat to anyone for the rest of your life?”

Cisco doesn’t know what makes him blurt it out. After the chaos of Zoom and her first tentative steps of a relationship with one Barry Allen, the two of them had just sort of… fallen together. Just as friends. They both need the reminder that there’s something more to their lives that’s not superheroing and superspeed.

Well, he thinks, if he’s going to tell any of his friends first, might as well be Iris. She’d probably be the most understanding. Or the least likely to judge him.

Iris, to her eternal credit, only looks mildly surprised. Cisco’s never been one to keep secrets. Boy is she in for a surprise.

“Of course,” she says. “Unless it involves someone getting hurt, of course.”

“That’s fair,” Cisco say. He takes a deep breath and tries to ignore the beating heart in his chest. “Since Zoom, my powers have… They’ve gotten a lot stronger.” Which is a huge understatement and definitely not the whole story but it’s a good start.

“That’s great.” Iris looks a bit confused, which, fair, it’s not really big news. With the precedent Barry set, Cisco’s powers is moving at a snail’s pace, no pun intended. “Is that why…”

Cisco shakes his head. He decides to start again.

“No—I mean it’s a part of it, but not all—What I mean is that they’ve gotten a lot stronger. Like a lot, lot stronger,” he says and he puts enough force in his tone to let Iris know he means more than he says. The way Iris sucks in a sharp breath means she finally understands.

“You’re the new superhero!” she says, indignant and surprised. Cisco nods, not meeting her eyes. “The one everyone’s talking about.”

“Since when?” Iris asks. “The news came out two months ago but…”

“Since after Zoom,” Cisco says tiredly. “The powers were just there. I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Iris asks. She hates being lied to, and she hates secrets, Cisco remembers. Not without good reason, of course. Maybe Cisco should have thought this through more.

“I didn’t want to tell Barry,” Cisco says. “I didn’t want him to know. And if I tell any of you…”

“Barry will find out,” Iris finishes. Their group is notoriously terrible at keeping secrets. Really, it’s a miracle the Flash still has a hint of anonymity. “Why not?”

“Look, don’t give him crap for this, but I think he did something to the timeline.” The look Iris’ eyes says that she will definitely be giving Barry crap for this. Cisco feels instantly guilty. He really doesn’t want to mess up their relationship over something that never actually happened. He and Barry are the only one who remembers, anyway. It doesn’t mean anything. “Something happened and I keep having these dreams where—These powers aren’t really mine, they belong to that other Cisco and… Something really bad happened to him because of it. I don’t—I need to deal with this on my own first.”

Cisco expects Iris to be angry. She’s been lied to and kept out of the loop so many times that she has every right to be. Out of all of them, she has the most right to demand honesty. Instead, she takes his hand and smiles at him, only a little sadly.

“It’s okay,” she says. “It’s your secret to tell. But you don’t have to go through this alone. You know that, right?”

Cisco nods.

“Are you being careful?” Iris asks. Cisco nods again.

“I’m not in any real danger,” Cisco says. “They’re usually just muggers. No match for me. I’m not gonna go around taking down metahumans. That’s still all Barry. And Dante’s been helping me.”

That makes Iris’ eyebrows jump in surprise. Superheroing had been a good bonding experience for him and Dante, all things considered. Who knew, right?

“Besides, who can take this hot bod?” He flexes his arm and winks, getting the intended effect of making Iris laugh.

“If you need help, though,” she says.

“I’ll call,” Cisco promises.

“Don’t get in over your head, Cisco. And don’t avoid us for too long. We miss our friend,” Iris says and Cisco nods again.

She doesn’t let go of his hand. Cisco doesn’t let go of hers, either.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

The police notice. Of course they notice. No one actually listens whenever someone asks them to keep a secret. And the news of the brand new superhero who lets out sound waves stays on the front page for an entire week.

No picture because apparently it’s impossible to take a picture of someone who can manipulate the vibrations of his body at will, but that doesn’t stop the press. It’s an absolute shitstorm.

Dante laughs himself silly when it comes out. Barry’s right, the names that newspapers come up with are truly horrible. Soundwave, honestly. Don’t these people have any originality?

“You’ve got to come out with it eventually,” Dante says. “I mean, it’s only going to get bigger. Your friends are bound to figure it out.”

Cisco does know that. Caitlin’s already giving him suspicious looks and Iris keeps reassuring him that he can ask for help if he needs it. Barry’s still completely oblivious, somehow. Or maybe he’s already figured it out and just letting Cisco do his thing. Cisco’s not betting on that one, though.

He keeps telling himself that he’ll tell them tomorrow, but like when he got the first hints of his powers, tomorrow turns into next week turns into next month. It’s so easy, to just let time pass instead of saying what actually needs to be said.

Of course, the keeping the powers a secret is sort of an impossibility now. Well he can, but that’ll mean bleeding out in a random alleyway and no, Cisco’s not that fatalistic.

“C’mon, Cisco,” Dante says in his ear. “Talk to me. What happened?”

“I may have gotten stabbed.”

Dante curses loudly as if that would magically heal Cisco. Cisco wills himself not to bleed out in some random alleyway. Neither of them seem particularly successful.

“Can you make it back here?” Dante asks. “Use those powers of yours, or something?”

They’ve discovered, by surprise, that Cisco can actually teleport. In hindsight, it should have been pretty obvious. Of course he can teleport. He can move between dimensions for Pete’s sake, what’s moving between finite distances compared to that?

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Can’t concentrate enough. Brain feels really fuzzy.”

Dante curses again.

“Call your friends,” he says.

“Dante—”

“You are literally bleeding out, Cisco!” Dante says. “Either you call your friends or I will!”

Cisco doesn’t doubt that Dante will. He imagines how that conversation will go and no. Just no. Definitely not happening.

“Alright, alright,” he says, when Dante makes a noise of impatience. He gets his phone from his front pocket and wonders who he’s going to dial. “I’m doing it.”

He calls Caitlin.

“Hey Cait,” he says when Caitlin picks up. “I sorta need your help right now.” He coughs and tries to cover it up. He doesn’t need Caitlin freaking out right now. He’s doing enough of that for both of them. And that’s not even counting Dante freaking out.

“Cisco? What’s wrong?” Caitlin asks. Okay, there’s definitely a note of freaking out in Caitlin’s voice. Cisco may not have covered up his cough as well as he thought.

“I’ve run into a bit of trouble,” he says. “Okay, maybe a lot of trouble. Enough trouble to maybe need your medical superpowers?”

Cisco hears Caitlin suck in a sharp breath, definitely freaking out. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Where are you?” Caitlin asks.

Cisco tries to look around. He realizes for the first time that he’s really not sure where he is. He’s pretty sure he was heading home from his sweep but… He got a bit sidetracked.

He hasn’t noticed since he started doing the superheroing just how many people get mugged in Central City. He should probably tell Joe about that or something.

“Where am I, dude?” he murmurs. Caitlin makes a questioning noise over the phone that Cisco ignores. Explanations later. Not bleeding out in an alleyway now.

“Second Avenue,” Dante says. “Right in front of Benny’s.”

Cisco has no idea what Benny’s is supposed to be.

“Some alley near Second Avenue,” he tells Caitlin. “Near Benny’s, apparently.”

“Near your apartment,” Dante says impatiently.

“Okay, Dante says I’m not that far from my apartment. Maybe three or four blocks tops.”

“Wait you’re with—Nevermind, I’m calling Barry,” Caitlin says.

“No, wait don’t—” But Caitlin’s already hung up. Cisco closes his eyes. So much for keeping the superheroing secret.

“You’re in trouble now,” Dante says and yeah, Cisco kinda gets that.

Barry’s there a moment later, breathing hard and no doubt looking for bad guys to fight. There aren’t any. Cisco took care of them after one of them fucking stabbed him.

“Hey man,” he says. Barry takes one look at him, at the blood on his abdomen, and the superhero costume and seems to understand. He half-carries Cisco and runs.

Cisco closes his eyes, letting himself get lost in the constant vibrations of the speedforce, and gives into unconsciousness.

 

 

 

 

\--

 

 

Cisco wakes up to Caitlin’s worried face looming over him.

He hears several monitors beeping beside him. His body aches all over but he can take care of that later. Or well, Caitlin can take care of that later.

“I have a lot of explaining to do, don’t I?” he says. Caitlin sighs.

“Let’s leave that for later,” she says. “Just rest for now.”

“I wanted to tell you,” Cisco says because he wants to make that clear right now. He’s lost count how many times he’s wanted to tell the team about what he’s been doing for so long now. Especially Caitlin.

“I know,” Caitlin says, stroking his hair. And she sounds like she means it. “And I’ve kinda figured it out myself. You’re really not that subtle.”

Cisco snorts. No. He’s really not.

“I get it, really,” Caitlin says, stroking his hair. “Get some sleep Cisco. You don’t have Barry’s speed healing.”

Cisco wants to protest but his eyes are already drifting shut. He falls asleep to the warm feeling of Caitlin stroking his hair.

 

 

 

 

\--

 

 

“ _Okay, string-bean,” the other Cisco says. The nickname stuck, for some reason. “Ready to do this?”_

_Barry nods, armed and ready with the Flash costume. The rest of the team is upstairs, ready to defend the city from Impulse. It won’t be long before he makes his move, and what better show than the most technologically advanced site in the city?_

_Iris had given the other Cisco a hug before everything started._

“ _We’ll get through this,” she had whispered. The other Cisco hugged her back and hadn’t said anything. He can see the future and what he saw was nothing good._

“ _I’m ready,” Barry says._

“ _Okay. You know what to do, right? You go back in time, stop yourself from stopping the—” The other Cisco sighs, rubbing his forehead. “You’re going to restore the timeline, dammit. And stop travelling in time to change things, for Christ’s sake.”_

“ _I know,” Barry says, nodding. “I’m really sorry for all this.”_

“ _Whatever,” the other Cisco says. He holds out his hand and closes his eyes. Vibrations are easy. Vibrations are safe. Vibrations he can do._

_Dealing with speedsters who destroy and reset timelines, though? That’s another matter entirely._

_Cisco feels a disturbance in the speedforce, something other than Barry Allen or Wally West. He ignores it. He built five fail-safes into the room, four of them specifically to keep speedsters out. It ought to buy him a few minutes, at the very least. That’s all he needs. Just a few minutes. After that, it won’t matter anymore. Probably, anyway. Theoretically, it won’t matter anymore. Theoretically._

_Did he ever mention how much he hates the word ‘theoretically’?_

_He raises a fist and pulls. Vibrations are easy. He can feel them right now, just under his skin; Barry’s nervous breathing, the steps of his employees running for their lives, three floors over, Wally speeding through the facility, another speedster, running around, the vibrations of its arm as it enters bodies, Cisco’s own unsteady heartbeat. He feels all of it._

_He feels the vibrations of a universe, agitated. It’s easy to find the thread leading to the night Nora Allen died; the universe wants to be restored. It’s not gonna try and stop them. It just wants to make sure Barry’s going to do the right thing instead of fucking up even more. That’s what the other Cisco’s there for._

_The portal opens._

“ _Go, Barry,” he says. The disturbance is getting closer. As far as the other Cisco can tell, two out of five of his fail-safes has already failed. He’s heard a lot of heartbeats suddenly cut-off over the past few seconds. He tries not to think of them, and he sure as hell doesn’t tell Barry. They just needs a few more minutes for the timeline to be restored._

_Barry jumps into the portal, not looking back. Off to restore the timeline, hopefully, before the rest of the other Cisco’s fail-safes fails. He’s not betting on that one, though. He’d never been particularly lucky._

_When he hears rather than feels the presence of the only speedster in the multiverse he can’t stop, he knows it’s all over._

_Well, he thinks. It was a good run._

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

Cisco wakes up again to Dante looking extremely pissed.

“I told you, you were going to get stabbed,” is the first thing he says.

Cisco groans. He’s not even going to try to get up. Everything still hurts too much.

“Not helping, Dante,” he says. He looks around and, he’s definitely in Star Labs. Not a hospital or anything. Which means that whatever happened to him, it’s not anything Caitlin can’t handle, so there’s that. “What happened? How’d you get in here?”

“I called your friends,” Dante says as if it was obvious.

Cisco groans. See, this is why he doesn’t keep secrets. First, the super secret superheroing, then Dante’s involvement, they have a tendency to unravel before he can even realize just how many secrets he’s keeping. And he’s been keeping _a lot_ of secrets.

“You know your vitals bottomed out, right?” Dante tells him. “By the time you got here, you barely had a pulse. You should have died.”

And okay, that explains why Dante looks so pissed. It’s a surprise he’s not angrier.

“I’m alive, Dante,” Cisco says. “Everything’s cool. I mean, everything hurts right now, but I’ll live.”

“You’re not doing anything like that again,” Dante says. “I’m serious. You’re not going out alone.”

“He’s definitely not,” Caitlin says, entering the Cortex. She looks tired and drawn. Cisco feels instantly guilty for making her worry. But then, she also looks downright murderous, and that can’t mean anything good, either.

“I’m in so much trouble, aren’t I?” Cisco says.

“Like you can’t believe, Cisco Ramon,” Caitlin says. “Dante do you mind? I have to perform a check-up on this one.”

Dante nods, shoots Cisco a look the says they will definitely be talking about this one again, and leaves.

Caitlin gives him A Look. Cisco’s not about to say that The Looks are undeserved (they definitely are) but he wishes there was a little more sympathy for the guy who just got stabbed.

“You are in so much trouble, right now,” Caitlin says.

“I sorta guessed that,” Cisco says.

“Why would you just do that?” Caitlin asks, glaring at the monitors. “What if I hadn’t picked up in time? What if Barry hadn’t gotten there in time? You would have died, Cisco.”

“I’m sorry,” Cisco says.

Caitlin doesn’t look very impressed. Cisco has to sit through an hour long lecture on why he should definitely not be going out doing dangerous things on his own and why he should be telling his friends about his super secret superpowers. It has the added effect of being from Caitlin and ten times as guilt-inducing as anything that could have come from anyone else.

“I’m sorry,” Cisco says when she finishes. He really, really is. He doesn’t think he would have changed what he did if given the chance, but he really, really is sorry. Caitlin seems to understand what he doesn’t say. The hard look melts away from her face to be replaced by something softer and much more Caitlin-like.

“I know,” she says. “But if you ever do this again, remember that I didn’t just learn how to make medicines in med school and you don’t have Barry’s speed metabolism.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s against some oath you took, or something,” Cisco says.

Caitlin gives him an enigmatic smile and picks up the clipboard of his vitals. Cisco feels like one of the pieces of his life is slotting back in its rightful place in his universe.

Eventually, other people wander into the med bay. He receives a lecture from Joe about going into dangerous situations and one from Iris for getting in way over his head. He’s still waiting for the one from Dante.

“You’ve been going out on the streets,” Barry asks when he eventually wanders back to the med bay. He’s the last one. Iris and Joe were by just a few hours before him. “Alone?”

Cisco nods. His stomach really hurts and he’s trying not to fall asleep so hard. Probably not a good thing to fall asleep on this conversation. Barry definitely won’t appreciate it.

“That’s really dangerous, Cisco,” Barry says. “You could have—”

“I’m fine,” Cisco says. “I’ve been really, really careful.”

Barry looks pointedly at Cisco who is lying on a hospital bed, and okay, maybe he’s not being as careful as he’s supposed to be. He still maintains that it was an accident.

“Iris says you told her about it,” Barry says. Cisco nods.

“Why would you even do it?” Barry says. “Why didn’t you tell—”

“I remember Flashpoint,” Cisco interrupts. He just got stabbed. He’s really not in the mood to get lectured. He already got that one from Caitlin, Iris, and Joe, thank you very much. He doesn’t want one from Barry as well. He’s still not sure he even wants to see Barry. “I remember all of it.”

Barry looks stricken. He opens his mouth probably to explain or something like that, and Cisco’s going to fall for those doe eyes again and he knows how this goes already; he’s been through it so many times before. He knows Barry never means any harm whenever he does what he does but it’s gotta stop somewhere.

“I’m not mad,” he says rubbing the back of his neck. A hard maneuver, considering he’s bedridden. “I’m really not. I mean, it was a pretty shitty thing to do, I’m not gonna deny that. I get why you did it but…”

He trails off. How could he say that he has to deal with a new set of nightmares all over again? How could he say that he sees himself at the hands of three evil speedsters every time he closes his eyes, that that other Cisco’s memories are practically his own and he’s starting to confuse which is the other Cisco’s and which are his own?

How can he tell Barry that he has powers he doesn’t understand and are still terrified of because he hadn’t had the other Cisco’s opportunity to get used to them? He feels like a stranger in his own skin. It’s not really Barry’s fault but it still sucks. A lot.

He says, “I just needed time to process it, alright? All of it.”

Barry nods, looking like a kicked puppy. Cisco feels bad for being the one to put it there but… He needed to deal with this thing on his own, away from Barry Allen and away from any reminder from that other life. Which of course, meant everything he has in this life.

He needed to remember how to breathe in a universe with memories from another one. He needed to remember not to tense up at the feeling of the speedforce thrumming in the air because he’d been murdered by speedsters twice already.

He needed to remember how to be the Cisco Ramon of this universe again. The Cisco Ramon who laughed, and made movie references, and wasn’t angry at the world.

“Going out in the streets was part of that, I guess,” he says with a shrug. Or as close to a shrug as he can manage while bedridden. Sucky as it is, Cisco’s definitely milking getting injured for all its worth. “These powers weren’t mine, they were that other Cisco’s but he was—And now I have them. So was the costume. They were all his. He was the hero, not me. I just got lucky.”

“I get it,” Barry says, sincere and understanding. “I still wish you would have told us, but I get it.”

“He died,” Cisco tells him. “Just after you left. Impulse was already in the building and he was looking for you, and he didn’t tell you because he knew that you’d go back and you couldn’t. If you went to fight him, you would have died and he couldn’t let that happen. The timeline had to be restored. He died just when you reached the night your mother died.”

“Cisco…”

It’s not a nice memory to have, having a speedster run a hand through you-but-not-you’s chest. And he has to deal with three different scenarios of that. There’s a reason he doesn’t sleep much anymore.

“He was a hero,” Cisco says. “A bit of a dick, sure, but he’s a hero when it counted. I needed to live up to that.”

Cisco realizes for the first time how childish it sounds. He’s not a hero and even now, he still feels like a kid in a costume. He has the power of the multiverse at his fingertips and he uses it to beat up random muggers. The other Cisco’s saved the world so many times already (something called the Justice League and a battle on another planet with his brother.) and Cisco can’t even handle small-scale criminals. Fucking pathetic.

Cisco feels so small in comparison to that. He can be like that, he knows. Maybe, anyway. But he’s just too scared to even try.

He has powers that aren’t his and he tried living up to them so hard. He doesn’t think he succeeded.

“I was looking for you,” Barry says abruptly. “That’s why I went to Ramon Industries that day. I needed to find you. I couldn’t remember a thing, but I knew to come look for you. Not because of what that other Cisco’s done, but _you._ I knew I needed to find you.”

“Barry…”

“The universe was leading me to you. There’s a reason you were the first thing I remembered. It knew that I would need you. It knew that I would need you to save me,” Barry says. “And I found you. Eventually. That other Cisco was a hero because he’s done all these things, but you’re already a hero, Cisco. You’ve saved me so many times.”

Cisco thinks of Reverb who wanted to be a god, of that other Cisco who died trying to reset a timeline that never belonged to him. He thinks of how Doctor Wells who was a merciless murder gave him a gift and told him that a great and honorable destiny awaited him.

He still doesn’t feel like a hero; he knows there are probably universes out there where he isn’t, but Barry never doubted it for one moment. Never doubted that Cisco Ramon is hero material. He looks at Cisco like he’s the greatest hero that could ever exist. His belief had spanned universes and fucked up timelines. Maybe Cisco should try and believe it for once.

“I needed to believe it for myself,” Cisco says.

He reaches out and Barry pulls him into an embrace, pressing a kiss to his hair.

“You’re a hero,” Barry says. Cisco closes his eyes and tries to believe it. It’s getting easier everyday.

 

 

 

_\--_

 

 

 

Things with Barry get easier after that. Not like what it was before, but easier.

He comes over a lot while Cisco was stuck in bed (which was entirely too long in Cisco’s opinion. He suspects part of it was just Caitlin getting her revenge.) Barry brings over Wrath of Khan, or Star Wars, or whatever movie he can think of, along with Iris, and popcorn. It’s just like their weekly movie nights, with the addition of Iris. Cisco would feel bad for crashing their dates but they never seem to mind. And if he’s completely honest, Iris being there makes the experience all the more awesome.

Like, at least, ten times more awesome.

Somehow, even after Cisco’s officially been released from Caitlin’s grips, the tradition still continues. Somewhere along the way, the urge to run away whenever he sees Barry has faded away. Time maybe, maybe Cisco’s finally moving on. It sure feels like it.

Currently, the three of them are squashed in Cisco’s couch, watching the credits of Revenge of the Sith.

“No, come on dude, Anakin’s totally a Gryffindor!”

“He’s ambitious,” Barry keeps insisting. “He wants to rule the universe.”

“To save Padme! He has a moral code, dude.”

“Are you saying Slytherins don’t have moral codes?”

They both turn to Iris, who’s watching the two of them with a quirk of her lips. She seems to find the entire discussion completely hilarious.

“I have to say I agree with Cisco,” she says. “Anakin’s definitely a Gryffindor.”

Barry’s betrayed puppy look makes Iris burst out laughing and Cisco let out a small giggle. They almost don’t hear Cisco’s phone beeping.

“Yo, dude,” Barry says. He nods at Cisco’s phone. His heart sinks, just a little bit. Movie night’s over then.

“Metahuman near City Hall,” Cisco says. “Apparently she’s rambling about murdering the mayor and ruling the city. Police can’t seem to get a clear shot. No one’s gotten hurt as far as I can tell.” As far as villains went, this one’s not pretty bad, which is a sentence Cisco never imagined himself thinking. He turns to Barry.

“You gotta go, dude,” he says.

Barry doesn’t speed away immediately. He hesitates, looking at Cisco.

“You wanna come with?” he asks. Cisco falls still.

“I mean, you’ve been doing it on your own, and I thought maybe…” Barry trails off and doesn’t continue. Cisco understands what he means, anyway. He hadn’t gone out since getting stabbed. At first, because he’d been under strict orders from Caitlin not to do anything dangerous. Then, he simply… hadn’t.

The constant thrum of a city in danger still keeps him up at night, but he just hadn’t gone out again. Having everyone in his life basically tell him that he was an idiot and way in over his head messed with his confidence a bit.

Barry’s words had helped but they’re just words. The feeling of getting stabbed is much more convincing.

He almost says no right away but he manages to stop himself. It’s not like he can say he’s inexperienced because he’s really not. And he’s working on looking Barry in the eye again; this will probably help with that. And Barry had asked, so he must not think Cisco’s totally incompetent.

“Are you sure?” he still can’t help but ask. “I mean, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. You can probably handle it on your own.”

“Yeah,” Barry says. “I just thought that maybe you’d want to…”

“The public’s been missing their superhero, _Vibe,_ ” Iris says with a grin. “It took me a lot to get CCN to run that name. Time to earn it.”

“Okay. Okay, if you’re sure,” he says. “Just give me a minute to get changed.”

“Great,” Iris says. “I’ll do comms from here.”

Cisco nods. It feels like the beginning of something.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

_Barry stops himself from stopping his mother getting murdered. Nothing big happens, no big explosion to indicate a universe righting itself, but it vibrates at its normal frequency again. No one on this Earth, other than Cisco Ramon would have noticed the difference._

_Barry can travel in time again. He’s not tempted to change anything anymore. He just wants to go home._

_All is right with the universe._

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

Jinx. Probably the worst villain they’ve ever faced. And yes, Cisco’s including the Reverse-Flash and Zoom.

Probability Manipulation. Cisco honestly doesn’t know how they’re supposed to fight a villain who’s power is to give all her enemies bad luck. Like really, really, really bad luck. Breaking a thousand mirrors worth of bad luck. How does anyone fight bad luck?

“You’ve got to distract her,” Iris says. The Flash is currently out of commission. He’s still running from an unusually fast horse from Central City Race track. Cisco is really beginning to hate this villain.

“How exactly do we do that?” Cisco asks. Jinx hasn’t seen him yet, but Cisco thinks that that’s because his costume minus the goggles really look like normal civilian clothes. He’s going incognito.

“Cisco.” That’s definitely Dante’s voice in his ear. Not Iris. Dante.

“What the hell, Dante?”

“I called him,” Iris says. “Along with Caitlin.”

“You—You know what never mind. What do I do?”

“Maybe if you break her concentration, her powers will break,” Caitlin says.

Break her concentration. Cisco’s finding it really hard to concentrate, himself. Hearing everyone’s panic from over ten blocks over is really not helping. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to be breaking other people’s concentration when he can barely distinguish his friend’s words from everyone else’s rapid heartbeat.

“Take away the sound around her,” Dante suggests. “That’s pretty distracting.”

“Okay. Yeah. I can do that.”

Sound. Okay. Cisco can probably deal with sound. He takes a deep breath and puts on his goggles. He’s been needing it less and less these days, but they help him concentrate. Right now, he needs all the concentration he can get.

He feels around for the vibrations around Jinx—just the sound. Air is a big no-no. Cisco’s still not sure he won’t accidently kill someone with that move—and wills them to stop. Vibrations are simple. Just movement. What can move can be stopped.

Jinx whirls around, surprised and a little terrified. A string of curses escape her mouth.

“Now Ba—Flash!” he shouts through the comms.

A streak of yellow lightning and Jinx is suddenly restrained and Booted. Barry high-fives him, a huge grin on his face.

“Nice job, Vibe,” he says.

Cisco doesn’t even notice the huge crowd that’s gathered around them. The secret’s definitely out now but he can’t bring himself to care. He’s too busy grinning back at Barry.

“Thanks Flash,” he says.

 

 

 

\--

 

 

 

“You ready?” Barry asks.

Cisco’s in the Cortex, wearing the costume and finally feeling like he’s more than a kid playing with grown-ups. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d be going out on the streets to save people and kick some villain butt, but it is the first time he’s doing it as an honest-to-god superhero called Vibe. At least for Cisco, anyway. It feels _that_ significant. He takes Barry’s hand in his own, and it calms his nerves a bit.

He’s been growing closer as well. Cisco knows that that probably means something but he’s not thinking about it right now. It’s the sort of thing that can be left for later.

Somehow, against all reason, Impulse finds himself onto this Earth, as well. For a guy who’s not even supposed to exist, the guy’s annoyingly persistent. Cisco’s not sure if his powers will work this time around but that doesn’t mean he won’t try. He’s not going to get murdered by the same speedster twice in a row.

“I’m ready,” he says.

“Alright then, boys,” Iris says. She’s running comms with Caitlin this time. Out of the four of them, she’s the only one with a real job, but superheroing has taken over their lives. It’s hard to walk away from it. “Time to be superheroes.”

Dante’s been stopping by a lot, as well. Cisco gives him two months before he finally gives in.

Cisco pulls the hood over his head and puts his goggles on.

“Let’s do this,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> It's my headcanon that cisco of flashpoint's story is really similar to the new 52 cisco. Dante's characterization also borrows a lot from the new 52 (along with a little dialogue)
> 
> Also, I could have sworn that there's also a fic out there who uses the same new 52 dialogue but for the life of me I can't find it. Anyone?
> 
> Impulse is just some speedster I pulled from the comics which I have never read. I'm sorry if anyone found my portrayal cringe-worthy.
> 
> check me out on [Tumblr](http://loveciscoramon.tumblr.com)!


End file.
